Radical Homemaking | Books to Read

You'll notice that I haven't posted any gift guides or extensive Christmas lists this year. Usually I put together a little something, but 2013 has been a good year full of contentment and abundance and somehow I just don't feel right following all that goodness with a list of "wants". What can I say? I'm in a grateful place and the mantra "all I have is all I need" is ringing throughout my home.

Instead, I've posted a list of books I'd like to read in 2014. Some I'll check out from my local library, some I'll borrow from friends and some I may buy outright. The thing they have in common is that they are all geared towards my goal to lessen our household consumption and beef up our handmade production. Remember THIS summer post? It is still very much at the heart of my current efforts around the house.

Here they are in no particular order:

Make the Bread, Buy the Butter by Jennifer Reese

Radical Simplicity: Creating an Authentic Life by Dan Price

Roots, Shoots, Buckets and Boots by Sharon Lovejoy

I Love Dirt: 52 Activities to Help You and Your Children Discover the Wonders of Nature by Jennifer Ward

The Best of Making Things: A Hand Book of Creative Discovery by Ann Sayre Wiseman

The Garden Primer by Barbara Damrosch

Keeping Chickens by Ashley English

The Backyard Homestead by Carleen Madigan

The Homemade Pantry: 101 Foods You Can Stop Buying and Start Making by Alana Chernila



And here are some books that are already in my personal library, but are must reads for anyone on the Radical Homemaking path:

Radical Homemaking: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture by Shannon hayes

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver



Currently on my nightstand, a funny, tightly written memoir:

Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter

Images courtesy the Ghost Town Farm blog, where Novella writes about her urban farm.